Friday, July 1, 2016

Black Powder - I

A while ago, we studied about black powder in two separate posts. Since we've studied the processes of obtaining the basic ingredients of black powder (saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur) in great detail in some of our previous posts in the last few months, we will study the processes of combining them into black powder in some detail in the next series of posts.

Before we start our study of black powder manufacture, let us discuss the proportions of the ingredients of black powder. While it is true that many countries had settled with the proportions of 75% saltpeter, 10% sulfur and 15% charcoal by the 18th and 19th centuries, this wasn't always true in all countries. Moreover, the proportions also varied a bit, depending on the use for the black powder. For instance, powder intended for military rifles differed in composition than powders intended for sporting applications, which differed from powders used for blasting purposes, powder used for fireworks etc. We have some information about the composition of powders made in various countries, courtesy of Oscar Guttman's book "Manufacture of Explosives" from 1895 (note that some of the countries have different names now)

Saltpeter Sulfur Charcoal
(a) Rifle Powders:
Austria-Hungary751015
Belgium75.51212.5
China751015
France751015
Germany741016
Great Britain751015
Holland701416
Italy751015
Persia7512.512.5
Portugal75.710.713.6
Russia751015
Spain7512.512.5
Sweden751015
Switzerland751114
Turkey751015
USA751015
(b) Cannon Powders:
Austria-Hungary741016
France751015
Germany741016
Great Britain751015
Switzerland751015
(c) Sporting Powders:
Austria-Hungary769.414.6
France781012
Germany741016
Great Britain751015
Switzerland78913
(d) Blasting Powders:
Austria-Hungary60.218.421.4
France721315
Germany701416
Great Britain751015
Italy781812
Russia66.616.716.7

As can be seen above, many countries varied the proportions of the ingredients based on the intended use of the powder. Note that the blasting powders vary in proportion much more than the rest. This is because blasting powder's requirements were that it should be cheap and develop as much gas as possible at a high temperature. Actually, blasting powders were more varied than the table indicates because powders with different rates of burning were used for rocks of different hardness. So even though the table above suggests that the French were manufacturing blasting powder with the ingredients in 72%, 13% and 15% ratio, that was only one grade and the French Government factories actually made 3 grades of blasting powder:

Saltpeter Sulfur Charcoal
Ordinary Powder622018
Slow Powder403030
Strong Powder721315

Similarly, some blasting powders in England were made of different proportions (e.g.) 65% saltpeter, 20% sulfur, 15% charcoal.

Powders manufactured in Belgium had the following compositions depending on the purpose:

Saltpeter Sulfur Charcoal
Rifle Powder7512.512.5
Cannon Powder7512.512.5
Sporting Powder781012
Blasting Powder751213
Slow Powder or Pulverin701314 & 3% wood meal
Slow Powder in cartridges701314 & 3% dextrine
Export Powder681822

In France, "pulverin" was also manufactured for use in fireworks and contained 75% saltpeter, 12.5% sulfur and 12.5% charcoal mixed together.

In the next couple of posts, we will study the grain sizes of black powder in the 19th century.

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